Yearbooks
by WordsPagesStories
Summary: It's the end of 6th grade and yearbooks are out. Yearbook signing is pretty much Connor's worst nightmare. That is until someone leaves him a very special message. (Just to be clear this is not romantic at all. No crushes. No love notes.)


Connor stared down at the blank pages in front of him. The first and last few pages in the yearbook was supposed to be for signatures and funny messages. But for him, they would just have to remain empty. Nobody wanted to sign his and he had zero problems with that. If someone did sign it, they'd probably just write something cruel.

He had no clue why his parents insisted he had a yearbook. Correction, why his mom insisted he had a yearbook. His dad actually couldn't care less if he had one or not. Like always though, his mom won with the argument that documentation was important. Documentation of what? It obviously wasn't of his school year because he was in less than two photos.

"Hey," Connor looked up from the empty pages to find one of his classmates standing in front of his desk. Mika Ehrke dropped her yearbook in front of him with a thud. All he did was stare up at her, "What are you looking at?"

"Not sure, still figuring out what I'm looking at."

"Ha, ha. Very funny Murphy," Somehow she was the only kid in the sixth grade that had the courage to talk to him like that. Everyone else ignored him, mocked him, or generally feared him. There were a few kids who were terrified of him, like that one boy that had anxiety.

Mika opened her yearbook to one of the front pages. Most of it was already covered in signatures and short notes, leaving only a few spaces that would be barely enough for a signature. She took the sharpie out from behind her ear and placed it in front of Connor. He looked down at the permanent marker then back at her.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Scoffed Connor.

Mika's smile faded and her expression twisted into a scowl, "To sign it. You don't have to if you don't want to but I was trying to be nice." She reached for the pen to take it back but Connor beat her to it.

"Fine, I will," In response she smiled, satisfied.

At that point Connor realized he didn't know what to write in the yearbook. He'd never had to think of something to write in one, no one had ever asked him to sign theirs. For a minute he stared at the page for a minute.

"Do you want me to sign yours?" Mika asked sincerely.

"I guess you could if you wanted to," At first he wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond to that. All of this was pretty new for him.

"Cool," The tall red haired girl slid his yearbook from under hers and opened it.

Seeing that it was completely blank, she decided she'd be the one to fill it. Connor finished his short message and shortly after Mika put the finishing touches on hers. They traded back their books and instead of looking at what he wrote, she waited to see his reaction.

Connor read:

 **Okay so I've talked to you like maybe seven times this year and we only have one class together but I felt the need to write you something. I've noticed that you are kind of a loner. Not that that's a bad thing, it isn't. I need my alone time too. But I'm really good at reading people and you seem sort of depressed and lonely. From what I've learned those two things are never good signs, they only lead to disaster. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't want anything bad to happen to you. I hardly know you but you need to know that at least one person cares. Don't do anything stupid. Try making a friend this summer. And if all else fails, I'm always available. Odds are you'll find me in the library or somewhere near there. I hope I'll see you next year.**

And in messy cursive, _**"Mika Astra Ehrke"**_ , was scrawled at the bottom. Connor didn't show it but inside he was glowing with happiness.

Mika seemed to be able to tell he was actually happy and peeked at what he wrote, "That's great Connor, really. 'Have a horrible summe'. Thanks. You too," Anyone could tell she wasn't actually angry. She turned and went to the other side of the classroom to talk to one of her friends.

He did try to make friends that summer. He really did. It just failed miserably. By late July he was giving up hope and decided to turn to Mika. After searching for her for almost a week he found out she had moved. If only she hadn't moved. Maybe things would have ended differently.

* * *

 **I know this is kind of short but I like that it gets straight to the point. It was actually inspired by a boy named Connor who wrote "have a horrible summer" in my yearbook a while ago. School's almost over so, yay! Leave a review if you so please.**

 **(Also, I just downloaded Newsies and I'm completely geeking out.)**


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